A More Funny and Relaxed Board Game
Written: Jun 05 '00 (Updated Jun 06 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Relaxed, funny, one of my favorite board games to play
Cons: Can be easily messed up, not for kids
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| Tokada's Full Review: Beyond Balderdash |
Balderdash is a great board game. It is much more fun than most board games because it actually takes some skill and thinking. Most board games revolve around rolling a dice to win, or some type of luck thing like that, but Balderdash is more of an intellectual game. It involves smarts, but not necessarily book or fact smarts like trivia games. It involves a common sense and common knowledge type of smarts.
Balderdash is a very simple game to learn. The basic idea is that you must convince the other players that your answer is the right one. There are several different categories, like words, initials, people, dates, and movie titles. All the questions in these categories are very obscure so that no one really knows what the correct answer is, but on some occasions someone does know what the answer is, just discount their answer while reading them aloud, but they will get rewarded with extra points. To play the player rolls the dice, don't worry the roll of the dice only signifies which category you will choose from, and reads the category, be it a word, date etc. They write down the real answer while the other players write down their phony answers. The player shuffles all the answers and reads all of them out loud, then the people vote for which ones they think is the real answer. It is always most fun when there are a lot of good answers so the decisions is tough, and a lot of players. Certain amounts of points are awarded for different things, guessing the right answer, having people vote for your answer etc. Just look at the rule book and most people will catch on quite quickly.
The best part of Balderdash is the environment there always is while you are playing the game. Although this is a board game and you try to win, no one ever gets too serious. There is a pretty laid back feel while you are playing the game. Most people just play the game for fun and not to win, of course there are always those really competitive people who actually play to win, like me. While you are playing the game you are mostly just laughing instead of concentrating on who is winning. This is the really fun part of the game.
While you are playing the game there are always a couple of obstacles. Some people cannot read each others handwriting, so they actually ask the person that the answer belongs to what the answer says. This can be very frustrating because it will completely ruin your chances of having people vote for your answer. Some people, when it is their turn to read the answers aloud, will read the answer that is correct out loud as well. In other words, if someone actually gets the correct answer, the person will read both answers so that everyone knows what the real answer is. These can be very frustrating thing to happen while you are playing the game. I know that it is a laid back game, but it is still necessary to play by the rules and give everyone a fair shot. As I said before, this is a game of common knowledge, so use common knowledge when you are reading out the answers. Read them before hand so you can make sure you understand the handwriting, if necessary pull them aside and ask what it was they were trying to say, and don't read both correct answers. It is quite simple to avoid these simple, yet annoying, obstacles while you are playing this fun game.
Unfortunately this game is not for all ages. I played Balderdash with a child around the age of ten, and they sort of ruined the game. If you know the child well enough you should be able to determine if they are mature enough to play the game. If they are whining just let the play as a team with another adult. But I think that everyone who is mature enough to play Balderdash, will enjoy it.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
Tokada
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Location: DC
Reviews written: 30
Trusted by: 43 members
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